"If the best defense is a good offense, then I am more than willing to offend my enemies... See you in the guhlag!" - jillosophy... "I am not afraid.
I was born to do this."
-Joan of Arc

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

There's no place like home... there's no place like home... there's no place like home.

Agents remove 2,300 illegal aliens in two weeksBy Jerry Seper

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

December 23, 2006U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents removed more than 2,300 illegal aliens from the country in the past two weeks on 35 flights to the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia and Africa -- one of the busiest periods of the year for ICE's Office of Detention and Removal Operations.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers, who heads ICE, said 852 of those removed had criminal records, and that another 21 flights this week will take 2,087 aliens to Central America and the Caribbean, including 515 who are criminal aliens.

"By the end of this week, ICE's Air Transportation Unit will have facilitated the removal of more than 4,500 illegal aliens in 14 days, including 1,414 with criminal records," Mrs. Myers said. "Apprehending, detaining and removing criminal and other illegal aliens promotes public safety and protects the integrity of the immigration system."

This week's Caribbean/Latin American flights, which are regularly scheduled via the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS) aircraft, are destined to Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Haiti (one).

ICE spokeswoman Kadia H. Koroma said that in addition to the regularly scheduled flights using JPATS, ICE Detention and Removal personnel returned last week from two special charter removal missions: one to Africa that repatriated 82 Nigerian and 17 Liberian nationals, and another that returned 55 Filipinos and 12 Cambodians.

Ms. Koroma said that on the African charter flight more than 60 of those removed had criminal convictions, involving drug-smuggling, possession with intent to distribute drugs, weapons violations, sexual assault on children, burglary and bribery. The group, she said, included 17 Nigerians with forgery and fraud convictions. She said that of the 55 Filipinos removed, 36 were criminal aliens and that 11 of the 12 Cambodian nationals removed also were criminal aliens. Their crimes included sexual offenses against children, sexual assaults, heroin smuggling, aggravated assault and homicide, she said.